Color Scheme Ideas

Inspiration for color scheme ideas often can be found in unexpected places.

Several friends have asked me recently how I come up with ideas week after week. A previous post — Citrus Color Twists — was inspired by a bag of M&M’s. I’ve been experiencing a bit of writer’s block lately so I started going through magazines that needed to be recycled. I noticed a full page AT&T ad (a portion of it is posted above) and thought: “what great color scheme ideas for a nursery or playroom!”

Then I discovered while writing this post that the colors are all there — in Jane’s child’s room post Blackboard Jungle Gym.As I turned a few more pages another ad caught my attention. I love this earthy palette. My first trip to Europe changed the way I saw our home and literally shaped all my future decorating decisions. Dining room walls were soon repainted the clay color of European roof tiles and the ceiling a soft moss green. On my monitor this Venice canal seemed too blue for reality. I decided, instead, it would be beautiful on walls of a room where with the furnishings and woodwork repeating the color of the buildings.

Several pages later, it was as if the creativity fairy had been heavy handed when sprinkling the magic dust. My thoughts, only a minute old, were appearing in front of my eyes in the form of fashion designer Herbert Kasper’s apartment library. Instead of scanning entire pages, I went to the Seabourn website only to find the ad had been tweaked color-wise (no shock there), and the original colors [below] perfectly echo Kasper’s Manhattan apartment.

I’m glad you all enjoyed the post. Color schemes are truly everywhere – some good, some bad – but just by stopping for a moment and soaking them in, it’s easy to find common threads – palettes that draw you in.

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